A Good Play

Robert Louis Stevenson 1850 (Edinburgh) – 1894 (Vailima, Samoa)



We built a ship upon the stairs
All made of the back-bedroom chairs,
And filled it full of soft pillows
To go a-sailing on the billows.

We took a saw and several nails,
And water in the nursery pails;
And Tom said, "Let us also take
An apple and a slice of cake;"--
Which was enough for Tom and me
To go a-sailing on, till tea.

We sailed along for days and days,
And had the very best of plays;
But Tom fell out and hurt his knee,
So there was no one left but me.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 25, 2023

29 sec read
797

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABB CCDDEE FFEE
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 471
Words 99
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 6, 4

Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer. more…

All Robert Louis Stevenson poems | Robert Louis Stevenson Books

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